Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin met with his U.S. counterpart, Christopher Hill, in Moscow as part of two-day discussions on Pyongyang's nuclear program ahead of six-nation talks tentatively scheduled for mid-June.
"We discussed how to move ahead with negotiations and considered inviting working groups and taking other measures as part of the talks... It is too early to talk about a specific timetable for events," Borodavkin said.
Hill said it is a difficult issue, but some progress has been made, and the countries involved could enter a new disarmament phase soon.
On Thursday, Borodavkin was to meet with South Korea's chief envoy Kim Sook in Moscow.
The six-party talks, which also include China and Japan, stalled after Pyongyang missed the late-2007 deadline for providing details on its uranium enrichment program and nuclear technology, which it is suspected of passing to other countries.
The reclusive communist state in turn accused Washington of failure to fulfill a commitment to strike it off the blacklist of countries supporting terrorism.
Recently, Pyongyang provided new data on its nuclear activities.
Hill said China is organizing a meeting of the six countries' delegations and will fix a date for a new round of talks after the consultations.
Hill held talks with North Korea's top negotiator Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing on Wednesday to try to reach an agreement on a timeframe for completing the nuclear talks. He said it was a "very good discussion," but did not announce any timetable.
Fuel supplies
Borodavkin also said Russia will complete the second shipment of fuel for North Korea's power plants by late May or early June as part of a denuclearization deal.
"We hope that the second delivery will be made in May or in the first few days of June," he said.
Russia delivered the first batch of fuel in January, under a deal envisioning economic aid and political incentives for the impoverished North in exchange for halting its nuclear programs.
Since the October agreement, South Korea, China and Russia have each supplied North Korea with 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil.
